Gardening, the practice of growing and cultivating plants known as hydroculture, is a popular backyard activity among homeowners. Ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance while other plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits and herbs, are grown for consumption or for medicinal or cosmetic use. Gardening is considered to be a relaxing, pleasurable activity for many people. Until now, apartment and condominium dwellers, as well as the handicapped, young and elderly, were often denied the opportunity to experience the personal satisfaction inherent in planting, growing, and enjoying the results of their efforts.
Plant growing systems in the form of flower pots, which a person must water, are very well known. Automatic systems for watering plants are also well known. However, recent technology has advanced the art of hydroponics, a subset of hydroculture and method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Use of this process enables apartment dwellers, condominium residents, handicapped people, young and the elderly to experience the satisfaction inherent in gardening. The plants can be grown solely in water with their roots suspended in the nutrient solution, in the air with the nutrient solution cascading among them, or in a growing medium that supports the roots while ensuring contact with the nutrient solution. The growing medium can be either man-made or organic, and can include various materials such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, coconut husk, vermiculite, clay pellets, sand, moss, insulation, saw dust, lava rock and the like. Generally, the type of medium selected may be based on the amount of aeration and draining required for the plant during growth. The nutrient solution is typically circulated in order to maintain continuous or regular flow of the nutrient solution to the plant roots, and thereby contribute to optimal growing conditions for the plants.
There are distinct advantages to using various applications of hydroponics to grow plants. First, the water remains in the system as it is circulated, as opposed to the continual need to add water as required with soil planting, which can lead to substantial production cost savings. Plant yields are found to be higher and more uniform than with soil-planted plants, and, perhaps more importantly, the plants can be grown in areas where in-ground gardening or agriculture is not possible. Furthermore, diseases can often be more readily treated or addressed due to the ease of plant removal and washing, as well as the ease of changing the fluid which nourishes the plant.
As noted above, a key advantage to using hydroponics is space saving. Hydroponic growing normally utilizes small containers which take up much less space than the larger area required when growing a comparable amount of plants with soil-based agriculture. In other words, due to the continual delivery of nutrients to the roots in hydroponics, the amount of volume/area required is minimized. Using a hydroponic system, homeowners can improve plant production from the garden space available to them, and apartment/condominium dwellers that do not have access to soil are still afforded the experience of gardening.
A number of hydroponic planting methods have been developed that hold plants in place while suspending their roots directly in the nutrient solution. One such method is typically described as deep water culture. Deep water culture is a hydroponic method of plant production where the plant roots are suspended in a solution of nutrient-rich, oxygenated water. Traditional methods favor the use of plastic buckets with the plant contained in a net pot suspended from the center of the lid and the roots suspended in the nutrient solution. An air pump powered aquarium airstone oxygenates the nutrient solution. If sufficiently oxygenated, the plant roots can remain submerged indefinitely. Once the plants are ready to bloom, the level of the nutrient solution is gradually reduced to expose the roots to the air. Plants absorb more oxygen directly from the air than from the oxygen dissolved in water. Deep water culture allows plant roots to absorb large quantities of oxygen, while also allowing the intake of nutrients. This leads to rapid growth throughout the life of the plant.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,805 to Ware is an example of a conventional vertical hydroponic system including a nutrient supply module with one or more columns radially disposed about a central axis. The columns include a plurality of growth sites. U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,972 to Freitus discloses a self-contained plant growth system including a three-compartment plant growth chamber having an upper compartment for holding soil or vermiculite, an intermediate reservoir compartment for storing fluid (such as a plant growth solution), and a lower compartment housing a pump and electric power source. U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,896 to Carl teaches a hydroponic apparatus composed of a series of tubes that support a plurality of plants maintained in individual planting cups. Slot-like apertures permit the roots of the plant to extend within the tubes. Sterile liquid is isolated from the direct flow of the nutrient fluid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,647 to Blackford discloses a self-contained hydroponic plant growing system having a horizontal tubular chamber capped at each end, the chamber having a series of holes along its top for supporting a plurality of specially constructed flower pots or cups having holes in their bottoms to enable root growth outside of the pot or cup to access the plant nutrients, whereby a water pump, which can be solar powered, circulates water and other nutrients from a reservoir system through a spray means inside the tubular chamber based on a timer set to deliver the water and other nutrients at optimal times to maximize growth. U.S. Publication No. 2014/0290137 to Nagels et al. discloses a vertical indoor plant growing system including a base defining an interior compartment, a mast extending upwardly from the base, a first arm extending outwardly from the mast, a cable hanging downwardly from the first arm, one or more pots engaged on the cable, and a water delivery system connecting a water supply and the uppermost pot. U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,482 to Bradley teaches a modular plant growing apparatus utilizing a nutrient solution reservoir and a plant supporting structure comprising inner and outer walls. A pumping system delivers the nutrients to the plants within the structure.
Despite the availability of a wide variety of hydroponic planting units, they are mostly bulky, cumbersome, sold in individual parts, difficult to setup or use, and often not energy-efficient. There remains a need for a hydroponics planting system that can be easily transported and/or stored, requires minimal effort to setup, and is easy to use. The hydroponic planting system should be sold as a kit which includes every element needed to begin growing beautiful flowers, aromatic herbs and tasty veggies immediately. The hydroponic planting kit should be solar powered, thus allowing the kit to be assembled and used anywhere there is sunlight. Portions of the kit should be collapsible to allow compact storage and shipment. The compact configuration of the kit should also allow for retail sales as an end cap or shelf item without the need for large containers. Thus, what is lacking in the prior art is a virtually self-contained hydroponic planting kit having collapsible/expandable components, requiring only the occasional addition of water and/or other nutrients which may be used by individuals to grow a plurality of similar or different flowers, vegetables and other plants at an indoor or limited outdoor location.